While I hope all FGR's HC followers are taking a break over Easter, spending time with families and loved ones, I guess there are some who just can't tear themselves away. So if you have checked in to see what is happening, with no market action to focus on, I thought it would be a good idea, and a bit of a challenge, to have some fun in trying to identify the mysterious new "Industrial Investor" who has recently taken up a solid (just under 5%) stake in FGR.
Let's start with what we have been told....... - from the announcement:
"
This is a limited private placement with most of it going to a European-based industrialist who approached FGR following a detailed study of the graphene sector and the companies with graphene credentials. We are pleased that he selected FGR as a company with merit, in which he can take an equity investment and work beside, with a view to the possibility of introducing graphene to enhance his industrial product range.
"
There has been a bit of discussion on these threads about the importance of the word "he" in trying to identify the entity. No doubt there was a "he" who made the approach, but he represents an Industrial entity that directly or indirectly employs thousands of people, and while a non-listed "family firm", has global reach.
The "he", and the firm are not well known household names, except perhaps in the particular industry they are involved in
I will give you a few more clues (yes, I am pretty sure I have identified who it is), but then it's up to you and the rest of the group to work it out. Just a few rules.
1) be nice to each other - no personal jibes or put downs. Working together and respecting each other gets better results. We all have our strengths (and weaknesses)
2) If you have "inside information", (e.g., like daveg with his self confessed connections to some of the larger holders), you are excluded from the challenge. Not even additional clues please.
Now, some of the group have already made suggestions.
Mr Space Bear claimed yesterday that he "now has a hint who it is". Maybe, maybe not. Some of his wide range of overseas contacts may have given him an inkling. Interesting to find out what he knows? Can he confirm that his thoughts match my major clue at the end of this post?
Yowie, I like your "left field" thinking - it's not an organisation involved in an industry we would normally associate with commercialisation of graphene applications -but geographically, you need to move to another country, further north in Europe.
Ms Curious, sorry, wrong industry, although the technology involved could well have application there, not only in the auto area, but in the aero and many others - but probably not in space (sorry nasa, carbon fibre/graphene composite is probably more the go there). But geographically you are close.
And spid - I feel your frustration and enthusiasm to find out! Just a couple of hints. Don't spend too much time looking at close connections, this truly came from "out of the blue". And if I may say, sometimes you may skip past small detail when you are researching. Try to remove pre-concieved ideas.
Another major clue:-
The industry involved, as I mentioned to Yowie, is surprising at first glance.
The technology, though, will be of enormous potential benefit to many industries.
It involves aluminium/graphene composites.
Early research on these composites was not very successful. Attempts to introduce graphene by sintering gave disappointing results, with weaknesses in the composite structure.
The key reason for incorporating graphene is to retain the lightweight characteristis of aluminium, while at the same time greatly enhancing it's
hardness.
Around 2015-2016, a new approach gave startling results. A technique that involved heating the aluminium to much higher temperatures (40-50% above melting point) while introducing the graphene, produced a composite where the graphene platelets were much more evenly spread through the aluminium, (retaining the strength), and increased hardness by a factor of 2 - 3 times.
From some of the research papers....
"Abstract
A novel method of creating new lightweight, aluminum-metallic, composite materials under halides melt at temperatures 973–1073 К under air atmosphere is proposed. The method for synthesizing aluminum-based metallic composite materials, containing up to 2 wt. % graphene sheets uniformly distributed in a metal matrix, is entirely new, having no analogies in current science and practice. The synthesis of graphene nanosheets in a metal matrix is one-step, simultaneous process, taking place directly in molten aluminum under alkali halides melt without the necessity of a separate stage of synthesis and introduction of graphene. This has the potential to facilitate the inexpensive synthesis of aluminum-graphene composites with a high concentration of graphene.
The aluminum-graphene composites formed according to this method are characterized by a high uniformity of graphene films with linear dimensions from 100 nm to 50 μm and a thickness from one to three nm in the metal bulk.
No aluminum carbide forms under synthesis; the aluminum-graphene and aluminum-graphite composites are resistant to corrosion in NaCl solution.
The hardness, strength and ductility of aluminum-graphene composites are at least 2–3 times higher than the initial aluminum material, proportional to the concentration of graphene."
and...
The improvement of hardening according to the elongation of an aluminum-graphene composite is due to graphene,
which has high strength and elastic properties. Relative sliding, or delamination, between the graphene layers can also
dissipate a part of the fracture energy, leading to an increase in fracture toughness.
TABLE. The properties of aluminum-carbon composites
Al Al–1% graphene Al–2% graphene
Melting point, K 662 °C 660 °C 658 °C
Specific density, g·cm-3 2.7 2.5 2.4
HV 2000 mH 16.72 45.32 57.19
Elastic modulus, GPa 60.61 82.48 87.93
Tensile strength, Rm, MPa 61.87 80.4 93.78
I think you will agree this new method of adding graphene to aluminium will have applications in many areas.
Including real potential for our new investor to dominate his industry.
Let's see if we can work out who it is?
